Archive for March, 2016

Step aside, climate change and global warming. Pooh-pooh, Cascadia fault. I need to worry about my fate in High Definition.

I want a countdown clock (in picoseconds) that gives me how long it is until the vacuum of free space goes to a lower energy level. Dr. Keenan concurs with Homer Simpson on the vital point that a hyper-sphere region of lower energy will expand at the speed of light, and all matter within it will flick to degenerate matter in amorphous clouds. BE THERE WITH ME when we turn into quarks and nuance.

I wonder what the temperature of that enormous cloud will be!

That’s it, universe fans. Physics has shown us the way! The entire work product of this universe could be a fart.

Or could the fact that the universe is conscious just hold it together? God save us! But hold yer nose.

It’s worth noting that Coyne in his book, The Story Grid, lets us off the hook of understanding the WHOLE topic of Genre with a simple statement: If you take away nothing else from this book, learn how to write a scene.

So here’s what he suggests as the recipe for a dramatic scene (paraphrased and diddled with by me).

Inciting incident — something throws the protagonist’s world out of whackProgressive complications — as the protagonist tries to fix it, more obstacles appearCrisis — Should hero go forward, or go home?Climax — Protagonist makes a decision. Reader should be surprised and satisfied, feel some catharsis or change of worldview. The climax should fit with the earlier parts of the scene.Resolution (turn) — Who won, who lost, can protagonist go back to how things were? If the answer is yes, it’s relatively boring. If the hero must go forward, your story becomes about life or death.

The Resolution is called a ‘turn’ because every scene is about CHANGE. If nothing changes, what you have is a pile of words. Your scene must have conflict. Someone must win or lose. Hero’s outlook on the world (or the world itself) must change by the end of the scene.

Learn to identify the five components of scene in everything you read. Watch what the turn of the scene FEELS like.

Work to create the inciting incidents that convey the most meaning and rocket fuel for the story you want to tell.

After a delightful evening at the casino, a few of us writer types from the Ashland (Oregon) Writers’ Group put together a list of what it takes to get traction in the indie book market. Your mileage may be zero. But hey, go for it!

Be a celebrity

Don’t use too big a words

Be a social media animal

Make it about a boy and a girl, aged 13 – 24

Make it an epic quest for Power and Things

Throw in a zot of moral superiority

Make it a trilogy, at least.

Accept that grammar and punctuation are stylistic bits

Spellcheckers aren’t worth the money

The future is a catastrophe to the past, so us outsiders with the paper 3D glasses need to man- or girl-up. The reality is virtual, from here on out.